Very smooth enveloping flavor. A bit malty in the beginning. Around brew 5-6 I pushed it a bit more to get some aroma impressing bite.

What impressed me about this tea most is the way it melds to your mouth. There was an impressive cohesion with the saliva giving it that "thick" feeling about which I have read. I'd say the neutrality heightens that sensation.

On a side note, this tea really gave our local water here in Cleveland a chance to shine. Filtered, it works wonderfully with this tea.

I sampled the final drops at the end of the session. Great intensity with nearly no astringency.

EDIT: add photos

Oh wow. Based on the photos of the liquor, in comparison with the 88 I bought from sampletea, yours looks at least 5 years more matured than the one I drank. I was completely unimpressed with the one from sampletea and the more I drink aged pu the more I realize that my Modus Operandi definitely has to be HK traditional storage. I'm still trying to find a tea that beats Tim's 8582 in terms of overall package (Mouthfeel, Complexity, Qi, and price of course).

Last edited by ImmortaliTEA on Jan 6th, '13, 11:27, edited 1 time in total.

Very smooth enveloping flavor. A bit malty in the beginning. Around brew 5-6 I pushed it a bit more to get some aroma impressing bite.

What impressed me about this tea most is the way it melds to your mouth. There was an impressive cohesion with the saliva giving it that "thick" feeling about which I have read. I'd say the neutrality heightens that sensation.

On a side note, this tea really gave our local water here in Cleveland a chance to shine. Filtered, it works wonderfully with this tea.

I sampled the final drops at the end of the session. Great intensity with nearly no astringency.

EDIT: add photos

Oh wow. Based on the photos of the liquor, in comparison with the 88 I bought from sampletea, yours looks at least 5 years more matured than the one I drank. I was completely unimpressed with the one from sampletea and the more I drink aged pu the more I realize that my Modus Operandi definitely has to be HK traditional storage. I'm still trying to find a tea that beats Tim's 8582 in terms of overall package (Mouthfeel, Complexity, Qi, and price of course).

Sounds like we speak the same language. Nicely aged HK pu is great stuff.

Do not use that color as a guide. The liquor is the drippings from the first 5-6 brews.

After writing this I read Guangs review and found some interesting parallels. It is quite different from Tim's 8582. Both definitely have their merits.

I have some QB '88 from other sources. It will be interesting to compare. I have not had the one from your source.

EDIT: spelling

Last edited by BioHorn on Dec 24th, '12, 13:56, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah, if absolutely forced to make an answer, I probably would say that the soup is a little dark and cloudy for something that's supposed to be dry stored. I would not have particularly cared. The one *real* advantage of dry stored tea is that you don't have people screwing it up with too much or improperly done humidity, Starbucks-style. And stuff that's poorly drystored is pretty obvious in it's own way--nasty astringency and throat feel, faded taste, so on... That's not to say that people who hate dry stored stuff are wrong

shah82 wrote:Yeah, if absolutely forced to make an answer, I probably would say that the soup is a little dark and cloudy for something that's supposed to be dry stored. I would not have particularly cared. The one *real* advantage of dry stored tea is that you don't have people screwing it up with too much or improperly done humidity, Starbucks-style. And stuff that's poorly drystored is pretty obvious in it's own way--nasty astringency and throat feel, faded taste, so on... That's not to say that people who hate dry stored stuff are wrong

As it is Christmas Eve and time is short, I will stay on topic. To repeat, the photo shows the end of brew drippings from the first 5-6 brews and does not indicate the true nature of a single brew. Regardless, the brews were dark like a traditional HK pu.

The main reason why I wouldn't trust my observation of your image, not only such that it could be any brew, same with the link above (perhaps that one is the 20th brew, who knows?), but the cup and the lighting source can make a soup brighter or darker in the image than in reality...

Yeah the one on clouds website that Tim linked looks almost exactly like the one I got from sample tea. It was very astringent (too much so for my tastes) and wonder why people make such a big deal out of dry storage when it still retains so much traces of youth (albeit some people believe there is more complexity developed but I'm just not sure yet). I guess I would have to try some of the Vancouver Dry-stored 50's red and blue labels that Daniel (CTS) praises as the best teas he as ever experienced to really be able to see how dry storage develops complexity after losing ALL of the youth! Oh and I agree with you Shah about the different cups making the liquor look lighter or darker, however, if you look at his cup it is very shallow and not even filled up all the way and still looks very dark but since its drippings I am curious what the actual 2-6 brews look like!

The main reason why I wouldn't trust my observation of your image, not only such that it could be any brew, same with the link above (perhaps that one is the 20th brew, who knows?), but the cup and the lighting source can make a soup brighter or darker in the image than in reality...

Yes, it's from the same source indeed. And it was almost certainly 2nd steeping - I always take pictures of 2nd steeping as the first one is too light to say anything. Only if I screw up the 2nd, I occasionally take a 3rd steeping, but it does not happen too often.

It was certainly lighter than most other stuff from EoT, even than part of their 90s teas. On the other hand, it is nowhere near some (imo)badly dry stored teas from 90s; these are late 90s though so it does not say much.

Essence of Tea QB 88Sample number 2This is a sample I bought at a different time from Nada.This sample exhibits much more evidence of it's youth. While by no means offensive, the piney undertone does hint to a different transition to maturity than "traditional" Hong Kong stored sheng. It is agreeable.

Let me reiterate that the photo of the soup was so dark since it was the "soy sauce" drippings. You will probably not see another pic of that from me...

This time I will take JakubT's nice suggestion to shoot the 2nd brew as an example.

Wow that is a huge difference between the two liquor colors. Was that the actual 2nd brew (meaning was there one rinse and then one first brew and then came this as the second brew) or was this the first brew after a rinse?